This invention relates to methods for distinguishing specific hop frequency signals from off-tuned signals and noise in a frequency hopping environment. In some cases, the bandwidth of a desired center-frequency-tuned hop overlaps with an off-tuned hop making it difficult to detect center-tuned pulses and to distinguish between these pulses and any interference or noise. Interference could be similar pulses from different emitters or off-tuned pulses. For example, use of frequency hopping in the ISM band often encounters interference from other frequency hopping signals in the same shared frequency band. Previous techniques to overcome such interference have been developed for multi-channel receivers, which have parallel channels for each frequency hop, to distinguish which hop is being transmitted. These techniques are based on identifying the receiver channel having the highest power, in other words, detecting energy levels in order to detect the burst of signal energy. It is expensive to have a multiple channel receiving system.